Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5107] [Yes,
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file was first posted on April 28, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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EBOOK theCanadianbrothers ***

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TheCanadianbrothers;or,theprophecyfulfilled.

CHAPTER I.

A few days after the adventure detailed in our last
chapter, the American party, consisting of Major and
Miss Montgomerie, and the daughters of the Governor,
with their attendants, embarked in the schooner, to
the command of which Gerald had been promoted.
The destination of the whole was the American port
of Buffalo, situate at the further extremity of the
lake, nearly opposite to the fort of Erie; and thither
our hero, perfectly recovered from the effect of his
accident, received instructions to repair without
loss of time, land his charge, and immediately rejoin
the flotilla at Amherstburg.

However pleasing the first, the latter part of the
order was by no means so strictly in consonance with
the views and feelings of the new commander, as might
have been expected from a young and enterprising spirit;
but he justified his absence of zeal to himself, in
the fact that there was no positive service to perform;
no duty in which he could have an opportunity of signalizing
himself, or rendering a benefit to his country.

If, however, the limited period allotted for the execution
of his duty, was a source of much disappointment to
Gerald, such was not the effect produced by it on his
brother, to whom it gave promise of a speedy, termination
of an attachment, which he had all along regarded with
disapprobation, and a concern amounting almost to dread.
We have seen that Henry Grantham, on the occasion of
his brother’s disaster at the pic-nic, had been
wound up into an enthusiasm of gratitude, which had
nearly weaned him from his original aversion; but
this feeling had not outlived the day on which the
occurrence took place. Nay, on the very next
morning, he had had a long private conversation with
Gerald, in regard to Miss Montgomerie, which, ending
as it did, in a partial coolness, had tended to make
him dislike the person who had caused it still more.
It was, therefore, not without secret delight that
he overheard the order for the instant return of the
schooner, which, although conveyed by the Commodore
in the mildest manner, was yet so firm and decided
as to admit neither of doubt nor dispute. While